“Takano Tofu” earned double honors at the closing night of the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy. It won the Golden Mulberry audience award and the MyMovies Purple Mulberry award.
Directed by Mihara Mitsuhiro, ‘Takano Tofu’ is a melodrama about an elderly tofu-making craftsman who is stuck in his ways, but also experimental and kind, but whose stubbornness causes suffering to those around him. Udine’s Japan selector, Mark Schilling, compared the work to that of master director Ozu Yasujiro.
The awards were presented in the early hours of Friday after a marathon day of festive activities that started with Chinese director Zhang Yimou on hand for a screening of his ‘Raise the Red Lantern’, followed by a generous masterclass and continued in the evening with the presentation of Zhang’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Two more films – Zhang’s “To Live” and the premiere of Herman Yau’s snappy crime actioner “Customs Frontline” – before a light-hearted festival awards ceremony that started after 1am.
The prizes determined by the jury for the best screenplay and the best director for a first feature film were both determined by unanimous decision. They both went to Korean works, to Park Young-ju’s “Citizen of a Kind” and to Kim Tae-yang for “Mimang,” respectively.
Earlier this week, Focus Asia, the festival’s industry section, presented the TAICCA/Focus Asia Co-Production Award, worth €10,000 in cash, to the Japanese project “Polaris”. The project is a portrait of the bar Polaris, which lights up at night, attracting ‘women’ from different backgrounds whose lives intertwine like constellations, only to diverge again. The project is led by Yamanaka Yoko, who will premiere her second film, ‘Desert of Namibia’, at Cannes later this month in the Director’s Fortnight section.
Awards for the Far Eastern Film Festival (Udine).
Audience Awards
Audience Awards
1) “Takano Tofu” MIHARA Mitsuhiro (Japan) Score of 4.51
2) “Confetti” Dir. FUJITA Naoya (Japan) rating of 4.41 First director.
3) Time still turns the page. Dir. Nick CHEUNG (HK) score of 4.40
Other awards
MyMovies Purple Mulberry
“Takano Tofu” Director. Mihara Mitsuhiro (Japan)
Mulberry Award for Best Screenplay
“A citizen of a kind” Dir. Park Young-ju (Korea)
White Mulberry Award for Best Debut Director
“Mimang” Dir. Kim Tae-yang (Korea)
Audience Award Black Dragon
“Bushido” Directed. Shiraishi Kazuya (Japan).
